Provision a Host (First Boot)

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Provisioning a host that has never been provisioned with Auto Deploy (first boot) differs from subsequent boot processes. You must prepare the host and fulfill all other prerequisites before you can provision the host. You can optionally define a custom image profile with Image Builder PowerCLI cmdlets.

When setup is complete, the Auto Deploy server and PowerCLI are installed, DHCP setup is complete, and rules for the host that you want to provision are in the active rule set.

Procedure

Turn on the host.

The host contacts the DHCP server and downloads iPXE from the location the server points it to. Next, the Auto Deploy server provisions the host with the image specified by the rule engine. The Auto Deploy server might also apply a host profile to the host if one is specified in the rule set. Finally, Auto Deploy adds the host to the vCenter Server system that is specified in the rule set.

(Optional) If Auto Deploy applies a host profile that requires user input such as an IP address, the host is placed in maintenance mode. Reapply the host profile with the vSphere Web Client and provide the user input when prompted.

Results

After the first boot process, the host is running and managed by a vCenter Server system. The vCenter Server stores the host's image profile, host profile, and location information.

You can now reboot the host as needed. Each time you reboot, the host is reprovisioned by the vCenter Server system.